Not Enough Chefs in the Kitchen
The group relocated down to the living room and kitchen area as Yuki said goodbye to her mother. It appeared that dinner had already started brewing with the sounds of boiling water. When Yuki's mom closed the door behind her to leave, that was when Arata took charge.
"Multitasking with cooking is a bad idea." He said, remembering all the times when his dad attempted to cook. "So it's better if we split into two groups. One to handle cooking, and the others will start on homework. Then we'll switch places about halfway through."
"I think it's best if I start with the homework part." Yuki's suggestion made plenty of sense, since this was her book they were working with. "So who wants to start with the cooking?"
"Then I call Arata." Matsu quickly made her move and clung onto him. It didn't technically answer the question, but it was clear which job she wanted. Even if it wasn't the work that motivated her. While Yogi was cool with the idea, Yuki's reaction made him raise an eyebrow.
"I guess that's fine." The girl sounded very downtrodden hearing this declaration. So it seemed that she wanted to pair up with Arata instead of her cousin. He figured it was because she didn't want to continue hiding behind Yogi for once, even if Arata was simply the other safe person in her life.
It was a bit of a shame and he even considered speaking up to change the arrangement. Then again, the idea of having Matsu and Yogi pair up sounded like it'd be disastrous. Yuki's mom most likely wouldn't want to come home with the house on fire. Not to mention that their project probably wouldn't go so well with those two handling the details.
"Okay then, let's get started." Instead, he simply agreed with Matsu and the two pairs separated to get on their jobs. This situation wasn't entirely unexpected from him. After all, that girl had somehow fallen for him. A thing that Arata did wonder why that was the case, since she had never actually told him how she felt.
"Okay, then I'll cut the veggies and you can begin the stew." Matsu was the one to take charge of cooking. Though her suggestion raised fear inside of him. Despite the fact she was a high school girl, he felt as though she might cut herself on accident.
"How about I take the veggies?" He held onto the knife that was taken out of the drawer. "You can take the stew, okay?" Matsu accepted his suggestion with no question. To her, it didn't matter who took what job. So he was able to take a moment to breath a sigh of relief for her safety. Though perhaps he should've not underestimated her lack of practical skills.
"So, what am I supposed to do?" It turned out the reason she took the reins at first, was because cutting vegetables is about all she did when it came to cooking. "How do I make the broth?"
"Start by boiling some stock." He pointed over to one of the cans of prepared broth that was left on the table. "And it looks like you need to make the rice." She gave him a salute and began to turn his suggestions into reality. That was easy enough, as she took out a pot and began heating it with the stove. Once the stock was getting underway, she went to begin with the rice. Unfortunately, this little cooking expedition was not going to be that easy.
"Wait." Yuki came to a sudden realize as she saw the girl begin to start the faucet. Too bad she was too quiet and too late to stop the impending flood about to occur.
Said flood being a slightly broken faucet shooting out water.
"Ahh!" Matsu yelped out from being taken by surprise. Water jetted out from the unseen crack, hitting the girl directly as she struggled to turn off the water supply. Arata leaped into action and ran towards her to turn it off. He had to be careful about not slipping onto the now very wet floor beneath them.
"Got it." He said once water wasn't splashing on their faces anymore. This turned out to be a mess, and it wasn't even Matsu's fault for once. "Are you all right…" Arata looked over to her in concern. What he wasn't expecting to see was what happened to her clothes.
The girl had come here with some casual clothing, which for her was a simple white dress and some tights due to the Winter cold. Of course, the word white is the operative here, as unsurprisingly, it turned see through as a result of getting soaked.
She had on a yellow floral bra, which was shown quite easily to him now.
"Ahh!" She screamed yet again when she realized what made the boy stop talking. Instantly, she put an arm up to cover herself and turned away from him. "S-sorry about that." She meekly said, barely audible with the direction she was speaking with him.
"It's n-not your fault." He tried to keep his composure about what had just happened. Especially now that they needed to worry about all the water on the floor now.
"Do you need any help?" Yogi asked them from across the room. Arata told them not to worry and stayed focus on the homework while they got things cleaned up. Matsu on the other hand, got a towel to wrap around her dress to avoid looking so indecent.
"I'm so sorry." She was remorseful over what occurred in the kitchen. He was handling making the rice while she mopped up the water on the ground.
"It's not your fault." Yuki talked with her across the room. "I forgot to tell you all that our sink's a little broken right now. My dad hasn't gotten the chance to get call someone to fix it yet."
"But even then, Arata had to come save me from making even more of a mess." She sighed as the rest of the water had been cleaned up. The group always said she was an airhead. Even if it was true, she didn't want to be the one holding everyone back. Because of her, Arata ended up doing most of their pairing work, and she added even more onto his workload.
"It's not really a big deal for me." He wrapped up their half of the bargain. By now they would be switching places with the rest of their group. Except there was one other thing left to do.
"I should get cleaned up now." She looked down at herself. The dress had gotten a little dryer now, so she wasn't revealing anything inappropriate to anyone. "Here, let's stop by the bathroom so we can wash our faces." Arata followed the girl there. He could do with a refreshing wash before having to think over the things that Yogi and Yuki started with.
"Ahh…" He brushed cool water along his face. Matsu did the same thing right next to him. The girl shook her head to shake off the water from her hair, which caused the droplets to fall onto him. "Geez, sometimes you really remind me of a puppy." He chuckled, wiping a drop from besides his eye.
"Do you like puppies?" She asked him, which was an obvious question about what he thought about her.
"Sure, but I don't think I'll be getting any pets soon." Especially not while he still lived hear that one restaurant his parents married in. He wasn't planning on repeating their life with his own romance.
"I love puppies." She glowed back up from her little bit of negativity from earlier. "Actually, I really like all animals. They're just so~ cute!" She gave herself a warm hug just imagining cuddling with those fluffy creatures.
"All of them?" He said, as they walked out the bathroom. "Even dangerous ones, like a bear for example?"
"They can be cute too." She didn't relent to him. "Even though it was just a person, I remember this one time I had a fun time with this bear mascot." In fact, it was at the same place that Arata had once worked for a little bit some years back. Given the time when she said it happened, he realized that the bear she was referring to was him.
"Why did so many people seem to go there?" He muttered to himself. It wasn't like that location was in their neighborhood. What were the odds that he'd run into someone he would later meet in school?
"What did you say?" She couldn't catch what he was pondering, but she could tell that's what he was doing. "Do you know the nice bear too?"
"Oh, it's nothing." He took her arm and rushed them back to their friends. The boy wanted to move on from that subject as quick as possible. "Let's go tell Yogi and Yuki that they can work on the food now, so we can get to the homework."